The Prescott Cardinals golf team competed in their first rounds of the year this past week, finishing second in their first meet in Altoona at Princeton Valley Golf Course and taking first place at Ellsworth Country Club on Monday.

Head Coach Scott Hamilton says their opening competition went pretty well for it being the first time they officially got out. 

“We shot a 167, which is the lowest round we have shot in Prescott in many, many years. It may be a school record; I’m still searching for that information,” Hamilton said. “This tied us for second place overall with Baldwin Woodville. Amery won the meet with a 160. This was where we were hoping to be, so it was a good first meet for us with much improvement still possible.”  

Tyler Reiter was a meet medalist, shooting -1 with an overall score of 35. Sam Vesperman just missed conference points with a 42, Harris Linderholm shot a 44, Luke Kinneman got a 46 and Cayden Johnson shot a 51.

“The course was in decent shape for this early. Greens were still a little bumpy as expected with not much foot traffic and not mowing them yet, but still great shape for early season,” Hamilton said. “The wind picked up a little at the end, and the temperatures stayed in the mid-40s, so it was a little chilly, which I do think affected some of the kids by the end of the meet.”

With such a high bar already being set for the season, scores improved further when they played their second meet in Ellsworth on Monday, as the team tied for first place with Amery with a score of 160.

Reiter led the team and the meet again with a score of 36, and Vesperman tied for third with a score of 38. Linderholm and Kinneman each shot a 43 and Johnson shot a 49.

Regular season play continues with two meets for the guys this week. First, they will play in the Saatzer Invite at the Hastings Country Club at 9 a.m. Thursday, then they will travel to play in the Reedsburg Invitational on Friday at 8:30 a.m.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats boys’ golf team has gotten off to a good start this year, finishing seventh out of 20 teams at the Hudson Invitational and then taking first at Lake Hallie Golf Course on Monday.

Although these are great finishes, Head Coach Tim LaVold is having the team focus more on the bigger picture.

“The Hudson Invite went ok for us. I thought our seventh place finish out of 20 teams was good. The only Wisconsin team that beat us was Eau Claire Memorial,” LaVold said. “It was a cold, windy, wet day, so our team score wasn't great, but it was pretty good for the conditions.”

Coach LaVold said it was a growth round for everyone.

“Jagger Johnson, Kal-El Xiong and Archa Xiong all got their first varsity experience, so that was a big first step for them,” LaVold said. “Ryan, Will, and Connor O'Malley all played ok. We tell them we don't need to play great now, it's the end of May that matters.

“I have a feeling that our roster will see a few different players in that 4 and 5 spot this season but who knows. The Xiong brothers are going to make a case that they are ready to fill those spots.”

The team shot a 324 in that round while the aforementioned ECM finished with a 312 and took second place. It was a different story on Monday, though, when the team shot a 146 on the front nine at Lake Hallie, beating the next closest team, Eau Claire Memorial, by five strokes.

Leading the way for River Falls was Ryan Swanson, who took first and shot a 33. Will Benedict rounded out the top 5, shooting a 37, and Connor Omalley took sixth with a 38.

Next up for the Wildcats is a Big Rivers Conference meet next Monday at Troy Burne Golf Club. Tee off for that round is at 3:30 p.m.

Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers played their first golf of the season on Thursday in Altoona where they took seventh place in their opening round of Middle Border Conference play, and then they continued on Monday, tying for fourth on their home course at Ellsworth Country Club.

The team shot a 190 on opening day, which was in the neighborhood of the majority of teams on the course Thursday.

Trey Wittenberg led the way for the Panthers, shooting a 39 and tying for fourth place. Thomas Tober shot a 47, Cooper Olson shot a 51, Rowan Nelson shot a 53 and Logan Peterson finished out the day for Ellsworth with a 64.

Rounds were universally better across the board for the Panthers. Wittenberg shaved a stroke off and took third with a 38, Tober finished with a 42, Olson with a 44, Nelson with a 49 and Paterson improved by a whopping 14 strokes, finishing with a 50 on the day.

Ellsworth gets a little break this week, but they look ahead to a two-round slate next week beginning with an invitational at Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax at 9 a.m. Wednesday, then continuing at Bloomer Veterans Memorial Golf Course at 11 a.m. Friday.

Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Cardinals played two rounds of golf this week, first taking fourth place on Tuesday at Rolling Greens Golf Course in Durand and then taking fourth again on the home course in Spring Valley.

They shot very comparable rounds, shooting 216 at Rolling Greens and then improving to a team score of 208 in Spring Valley.

Head Coach Tyler Anderson says that is exactly what they’re trying to do this season, improve with each match.

“We have gotten fourth place in every match so far, and I would expect that to be the case for a majority of the matches this season,” Anderson said. “Mara Ducklow had a season low score of 48, which guided us to shooting a 208 at our home meet last Thursday.”

Other top rounds this week include Tyler Paulson’s 51 and Sam Steinmeyer’s 52 in Durand. A feat they repeated at home, both shooting 51’s at Spring Valley Golf Course on Thursday.

Anderson says the roster is still pretty fluid, but practices have been going well.

“Our top three varsity performers have been pretty set in stone, but I expect the roster to start to change drastically as we continue to get farther into the season,” Anderson said. “We’re continuing to spend a lot of practice dedicated towards our short game and trying to limit strokes around the green.”

Coming up next for the Cardinals is another two-round week. First, they will travel to Colfax to play Whitetail Golf Course at 2 p.m. Tuesday, and then they will play Glen Hills Golf Club in Glenwood City at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.